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Kawaii Toys

Kawaii Toys: Learn All About The Kawaii Craze

Kawaii toys have become incredibly popular with children worldwide. While Japanese children have grown up with the spirit of kawaii (best translated as the quality of cuteness), many young people in the UK are now experiencing the adorableness of kawaii for the very first time. However, there are a whole host of examples of kawaii characters and toys in mainstream media already that can be traced back to the 90s within the UK such as Nintendo, Pokémon and Hello Kitty. But while us retro kids didn't really know that any of the characters in such franchises were kawaii, today's children do. So what's behind the kawaii craze? And where can you find toys made in the kawaii style?

A Short Guide To Kawaii For Retro Kids

As noted, some retro kids may have experienced the early days of kawaii in the UK in the 1990s, but this was just mostly mass-market stuff during that time. In reality, Japan has been creating kawaii plushies or toys and characters for many years. While children love the kawaii style, there are also a number of 20-somethings out there who adopt kawaii aesthetics into their everyday look. As we said, this is probably thanks to the fact that these young adults would have been children at the time the UK got its first taste of kawaii. Today, it's even possible to buy adorable kawaii baby toys made from the softest and most snuggly of materials. For those who are still confused by it all, think of kawaii as a 'cute overload'. In fact, perhaps the best known kawaii today across all types of people comes in the form of emojis. Within Japan, kawaii is a cultural philosophy. Cute images adorn many streets and walls of cities and scientists have even run experiments on the effects of this 'cute overload'. They found that performance levels in students went up in a number of areas after they viewed cute images of kittens and puppies, before concluding that kawaii images could be used to help boost workplace production levels. However, there's also another simple truth behind kawaii's success: young children love cute kawaii toys. While tastes can change as kids grow up, young children embrace cuteness far more than their older peers.

Toys Kawaii Style Can Help Kids Stay Kids For Longer

The cuteness of accessories, clothing and toys kawaii in style make them the perfect antidote to the stress of growing up quickly that kids today seem to feel the worst. In fact, many younger girls and teenagers have started to reject the pressures of miniskirts and fake tans by embracing the kawaii philosophy. The same can be said for younger children too. It feels like childhood is becoming shorter for kids as every year ticks by, and parents are trying to find ways to preserve the innocence of their children in face of the harsh realities of 'teendom'. While it's beneficial for parents to stave off those moody teenage years for as long as possible, they also want their children to have a full childhood – like they had when they were younger. So many toys and accessories are chock-full of gadgetry and technology these days; and kids using tablets are even at risk of finding out far too early that Santa Claus’ existence is in dispute! In this context, it can feel impossible to spark the childlike imagination of our children. The likes of kawaii-styled toys and accessories, however, possess a traditional, physical and quirky quality to them that fends off these modern realities. While it's easy to gender kawaii as for girls or women only, the reality is that many boys and men also embrace the kawaii philosophy. There are kawaii girls toys, boys toys and toys that aren't gendered at all. At Retro Kids, we stock a whole host of kawaii styled items – from toys, to lights, to cuddly toys, to even cute kawaii pillows.

Find The Best Kawaii Toys At Retro Kids

Here at Retro Kids, we value the importance of children being children. We stock loads of traditional style toys and accessories (hence our retro kids persona), as well as cute, kitsch and quirky toys that also fit in with these values – such as kawaii toys. Our stock is not full of big-budget, branded kawaii stuff, but rather it is brim-full of lovingly handcrafted toys from independent producers with heart. To see our full range of toys, accessories and clothing, just visit us at https://www.retrokids.com. If you'd like to learn more about our stock, kawaii or otherwise, you can call our team today on 0333 3583 228 or email info@retrokids.com.